Pallid sturgeon a fascinating ancient descendant

Mar. 6, 2013

Pallid sturgeon / Missouri Department of Conservation

Written by

Francis Skalicky

Missouri Department of Conservation

Learn more

You can learn more about pallid sturgeon and the comeback they’re making on Tuesday at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center program “Pallid Sturgeon — Dinosaur Fish.” The free program for ages 15 and older will begin at 7 p.m. in the Nature Center auditorium. To register or to find out more about other Nature Center programs, call 417-888-4237. Information about pallid sturgeon and other Missouri fish species can also be found at www.missouriconservation.org.

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Thanks to a better scientific understanding of its characteristics and habitat, a fish with an ancient past has an encouraging future.

Pallid sturgeons have been found on this planet since the Cretaceous period, a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. As Missouri became settled, it was one of the more unique-looking fish that could be found in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

However, by the latter decades of the 1900s, it appeared the fish’s 70 million years of existence was coming to an end because of declining water quality and changing habitat conditions.

Though still classified as endangered on both state and federal levels, things are looking better for this ancient denizen of the big rivers of the central United States. Before I get to that, though, here’s more about the fish.

Pallid sturgeons look like they swam with dinosaurs. Instead of scales, they have rows of thick cartilage plates that cover most of their body. They have long, prominent shovel-shaped snouts.

The vacuumlike mouth is far back on the underside of this snout — just behind a group of four highly sensitive feeding barbels. The pallid sturgeon is one of three types found in Missouri: The others are “lake” and “shovelnose.”

Pallid sturgeons are commonly found in the Missouri River and in the Mississippi below the mouth of the Missouri. They can reach weights of more than 80 pounds, and there are stories of early anglers in central Missouri catching pallid sturgeons weighing as much as 65 pounds.

As the 1900s progressed, the reports of recreational and commercial anglers catching pallid sturgeons of any size steadily declined. Overfishing, pollution and dam construction all contributed to the species’ decline. By the closing years of the 20th century, the fish’s numbers had dwindled to the point where complete disappearance from Missouri waters seemed a strong possibility.

The species’ plight attracted biologists in Missouri and elsewhere to the fish that had once been dubbed “the ugliest fish in North America.”

In 1992, pallid sturgeons were raised for the first time in captivity at the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Blind Pony Hatchery in Sweet Springs. Since then, propagation of pallid sturgeons has been conducted at Blind Pony and at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Neosho National Fish Hatchery.

Fish have been raised in captivity, and pallid sturgeons of varying sizes have been tagged and released into the wild for further study.

It may not seem that what happens to a fish species in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers has much to do with what’s going on here in southwest Missouri.

However, there are lessons that can be applied to boost sport-fish populations for anglers and improving water quality for everyone.

Francis Skalicky is media specialist for the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Southwest Region. For more information about conservation issues, call 417-895-6880.